The present invention generally relates to estimated time of arrival reporting systems, and more particularly relates to a method and system or utilizing data stored on a multitude of different computer systems of a service provider to calculate and report estimated time of arrival for given tasks.
The present invention seeks to reduce the amount of time necessary to locate current detailed status information regarding the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of a customer service technician. In the past, when a customer called to inquire about the ETA of a previously scheduled service appointment, the customer was often faced with long delays spent on xe2x80x9chold,xe2x80x9d or waiting for a customer service representative to call them back. These delays were typically the result of the customer service representative having to manually locate information regarding the ETA by telephoning the appropriate maintenance center or other locations. As shown in FIG. 1, in the past, a customer service representative 2 may have had to call the business office 6 to obtain status information for the customer. If the required status information was not available at the business office 6, additional calls may have had to been placed to the business repair center 8, the work management center 10, or the residential repair center 12. This sequence of calls frequently left customers waiting for long periods of time for status information.
The present invention solves this problem by providing an interface to legacy status systems for use by customer service representatives that substantially reduces the amount of time customers must wait for status information
One aspect of the present invention is a system for reporting an estimated time at which a task will be processed. The system can include a first task administration system containing status data for a plurality of tasks and a second task administration system containing status data for a second plurality of tasks. A user interface is employed to receive a status query related to a specified task having a characteristic unique to one of the task administration systems. In addition, the system includes a controller configured to retrieve status data related to the specified task from one of the task administration systems identified by the status query characteristics. Next, the system calculates the estimated time of arrival relating to the specified task from one of the task administration systems identified by the status query characteristics and sends the estimated time of arrival to the user interface.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method for reporting an estimated time at which a task will be processed. The method receives a request; analyzes the request for unique parameters; accesses a proper task administration system from a plurality of task administration systems based upon the analysis; receives status data from the proper task administration system; calculates an estimated time of arrival utilizing the status data; and transmits the estimated time of arrival to a recipient.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description of exemplary embodiments, when taken in conjunction with the drawings and the claims.